Torrance Settles Sidewalk Mishap Case for $250,000

Betty Raidor, a former defendant in the McMartin preschool child molestation case, will receive $250,000 from the city of Torrance to settle her lawsuit for injuries she suffered when she tripped on an uneven Hawthorne Boulevard sidewalk.

Raidor, 70, had to have one eye removed and may lose sight in the other as a result of her April 5, 1988, stumble over a four-inch-high bump in the sidewalk, City Atty. Kenneth L. Nelson said. Raidor, who Nelson said suffered “a terrible smack in the head” in the fall, had recently undergone cornea transplant surgery, making her eyes particularly susceptible to injury.

“Her doctor said, and unfortunately our doctor concurs, that the probability of her going blind in the other eye is extremely high,” Nelson said. “We should have known about that sidewalk, but we didn’t.”

Her attorney, Baden Mansfield of Manhattan Beach, did not return telephone calls seeking comment on the case.

Nelson said Raidor would receive the $250,000 settlement as a lump sum payment from city funds.

Once a teacher at the McMartin preschool in Manhattan Beach, Raidor was one of seven people initially charged in the controversial case in 1984. The charges against her and four other defendants were dismissed in 1986.